A recent episode of South Park got me thinking that Matt Stone and Trey Parker just may know basic economics. The episode attempts to explain the jewelry business. It depicts old people buying jewelry at ridiculous prices from a home shopping channel and then giving it as gifts to their children. The children immediately take…
In this month’s Vanity Fair renowned economist Joseph Stiglitz discusses important lessons economists should take from the Great Depression. The article is lengthy, but interesting if you have the time. Stiglitz, a Keynesian, gives the expected presentation: manipulating financial markets (monetary policy) is ineffective in combating recessions and we need greater government spending (fiscal policy)…
Those of us who are mature, sophisticated, and all grown up know that without government regulation we would all live in slums and be poisoned by the food we eat. Or so Huffington Post writer Carl Gibson would like you to think in his hit piece on Ron Paul’s free market ideas. In this article,…
There seems to be a growing trend in economics news: discredit Austrian economics. Slate did it about a week ago, and The Huffington Post, not to be outdone, did the same thing. The themes are similar, Austrians are kooky and wrong. Unfortunately, the authors fail to comprehend what Austrians are saying.
“For them [Austrians], one…
Ron Paul’s economic philosophy and book End the Fed got some crucial publicity and thoughtful debate on Saturday. Simon Johnson, MIT economist and former IMF chief-economist, wrote in the New York Times economics blog that more people should take Dr. Paul seriously. Unfortunately he advises Dr. Paul promote some very anti-free market, and counter-productive measures.…
Think Progress economist Matt Yglesias is decidedly not an Austrian, and thinks only cranks are. Or, thats what one is led to believe after reading his recent article in Slate. Yglesias uses Slate’s soap box (as other anti-Austrians have in the past) to make a mockery of Austrian economics, presenting straw man after straw man…
Sometimes economists make analogies to make policies coherent. I find this by line particularly appetizing, imagining Bernanke as a soufflé chef trying to keep his light dessert fluffy. According to Menzie Chinn and Jeffry Frieden, the solution is just to whip in a little inflation to keep that soufflé/economy healthy.
The basic idea they convey…
http://www.economist.com/node/21542174
Is fiscal stimulus not working? Then do more of it, say the neo-chartalists. Are monopolies and price controls a problem? Then get rid of the central bank’s monopoly in setting the price of credit and the supply of government money, say the Austrians
The Economist, beloved and respected throughout the profession, ridiculed by outsiders…
The fallacy of the minimum wage has reared it’s ugly head yet again!
Progressive political blog Think Progress announced on Wednesday that San Francisco will be the first US city to have a minimum wage above $10. Citing the Economic Policy Institute, they wrote:
There are eight states that have legislated annual, inflation-linked increases in…
